This Harvard student drove her undocumented mother 2,000 miles so she could attend her graduation
Norma Torres Mendoza had a busy week, to say the least.
The soon-to-be Harvard grad not only attended the university’s end-of-the-year events and moved out of her apartment, she also flew to Houston to meet her mother last week, then gassed up a car, and drove her roughly 2,000 miles back to Cambridge, according to The Boston Globe.
Mendoza told the Globe she made the trek because her mother, Carmen Torres, is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico and lives in Texas. She said she was afraid her mother would get questioned, detained, or even deported if she tried to fly to the ceremony.
“We came [to the United States] out of necessity, like a lot of people do,” she told the Globe. “It was never our intention to break any law. I just think my mother’s thought was, ‘How do we survive? How do I put food on the table for my daughter?’ My mother worked hard, and never gave up on her dream of having her daughter be the first one to go to college. And because of that, I’ve always tried hard to be an active member of any community I’m a part of.”
This summer, the 25-year-old Mendoza, who is receiving her graduate degree in public policy, will drive her mother back to Houston and begin a fellowship from Mi Familia Vota, a non-profit organization that gets Latino voters active in their communities.
Read the full story at the Globe.
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